Family photo ideas: make a striking family portrait from individual faces in profile

Family Photo Ideas – step-by-step how to shoot your striking family portrait (4-6)

04 Set up the camera
Set your camera to manual mode and take a few test shots with one of the people in position to determine the correct exposure. Be careful not to blow out the highlights – this means you’ll lose detail in the faces.

Either turn on your camera’s clipping warnings or check the histogram to make sure none of the peaks on the graph ‘hit the wall’ on the right-hand side. Exposure settings will depend on the strength of the light. We’ve used 1/125 sec at f/8, ISO200 here.

05 Pose your family
Use a stool or chair so that each person will be in roughly the same position, which will help to keep the lighting consistent. Ask each person to look at a spot on the wall facing them so that the heads will be at the same angle.

Getting people to roll their shoulders back and tilt their heads upwards will help to minimise double chins.

06 Shield against lens flare
A light source angled towards the camera means an increased chance of flare entering the lens. This can spoil the whole effect by dulling the darkest tones (which is what has happened on the right of this image).

Fitting your lens with a lens hood can help, but this may not be enough, in which case, use your hand or a piece of card to shield the front of the lens on the side where the light is.